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Using 2 102" whips horizontal opinions?

Mr. Pipeline

New Member
Mar 13, 2024
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Hey hello there it's been awhile since I posted I do have left two 102 inch whips when I first got back into the hobby a little over a year ago I experimented with a snow rake handle that was about 15 ft and using the radio out of my truck and hoisting up the antenna here the SWR on this horizontal system was phenomenal it was near perfect my question is has there anybody been out there that uses one on a daily basis or uses one or has used one in the past as a dipole to use like a beam? Currently running a Sirio Vector 4000 At 21 ft at the base from to the ground which does extremely well but there are places over in Asia I cannot hit my location is in state of Maine but I have done very well for what it is currently running a Any tone quad 6 pro where they are in Italy 503 HD and they play together very nicely but I do hear my buddies with their beams and all that good stuff making the trip to Australia I did actually make the trip to Australia with the vector 4000 to a gentleman out of broom Australia northwest coast but it's been the only time so it got me excited but I noticed horizontally the guys with the beams are making the easiest contacts without effort and low wattage just seeing what the 102 inch whips in horizontal formation I've done it using the vertical formation and they work great as well!
 

Hey hello there it's been awhile since I posted I do have left two 102 inch whips when I first got back into the hobby a little over a year ago I experimented with a snow rake handle that was about 15 ft and using the radio out of my truck and hoisting up the antenna here the SWR on this horizontal system was phenomenal it was near perfect my question is has there anybody been out there that uses one on a daily basis or uses one or has used one in the past as a dipole to use like a beam? Currently running a Sirio Vector 4000 At 21 ft at the base from to the ground which does extremely well but there are places over in Asia I cannot hit my location is in state of Maine but I have done very well for what it is currently running a Any tone quad 6 pro where they are in Italy 503 HD and they play together very nicely but I do hear my buddies with their beams and all that good stuff making the trip to Australia I did actually make the trip to Australia with the vector 4000 to a gentleman out of broom Australia northwest coast but it's been the only time so it got me excited but I noticed horizontally the guys with the beams are making the easiest contacts without effort and low wattage just seeing what the 102 inch whips in horizontal formation I've done it using the vertical formation and they work great as well!
Go ahead and hold the whip in the horizontal position and notice how much it bends towards the ground.
Talking skip is a hit or miss game and all about conditions.
 
Go ahead and hold the whip in the horizontal position and notice how much it bends towards the ground.
Talking skip is a hit or miss game and all about conditions.
Well I have conducted a SWR testing before with them drooping down and wasn't affected at all ...near perfect results but my problem was my radio had some problems going on I wasn't aware of at the time heard stations on there that I never heard normally and static was very quiet
 
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Well I have conducted a SWR testing before with them drooping down and wasn't affected at all ...near perfect results but my problem was my radio had some problems going on I wasn't aware of at the time heard stations on there that I never heard normally and static was very quiet
I'm not certain, but I don't think the direction / position of an antenna affects SWR, unless maybe if the vehicle was in an enclosed building or garage. Go ahead and try transmitting and see / hear what happens next. Good Luck with that experiment.
 
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I built this in about 20 min and talked from CA to WV this morning on ten meters with 100 watts SSB.
Temporary, quick, and easy.
Can be flipped to run horizontal or vertical.
With my little LDG autotuner it covers 10/11/12/15 easily.
Direct connection with no tuner equals this on the old MFJ.
Two Francis 96" whips.

73
JeffIMG_20241114_102712.jpg





20241113_145455.jpg20241113_145444.jpg
 
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I built this in about 20 min and talked from CA to WV this morning on ten meters with 100 watts SSB.
Temporary, quick, and easy.
Can be flipped to run horizontal and vertical.
With my little LDG autotuner it covers 10/11/12/15 easily.
Direct connection with no tuner equals this on the old MFJ.
Two Francis 96" whips.

73
JeffView attachment 70872





View attachment 70870View attachment 70871
Oh yes I know about this very well I ran a system like this all winter long and it was great it did very well for what it was but I'm looking for anybody with experience in the horizontal position there if anybody runs their antennas like that to act like maybe a beam or something but thank you very much for the pictures looks great
 
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Basically, that's a "half-wave dipole", and EZNEC should show the same parameters. I won't swear by that, because I don't even know how to USE EZNEC. I'm just stating what you made according to antenna theory. Very neat idea though.
 
Oh yes I know about this very well I ran a system like this all winter long and it was great it did very well for what it was but I'm looking for anybody with experience in the horizontal position there if anybody runs their antennas like that to act like maybe a beam or something but thank you very much for the pictures looks great
Yes, many operators run HamStick mobile antennas horizontal, MFJ sells a kit to make dipole antennas with mobile whips.
Works just fine.

73
JeffScreenshot_20241114-120501~2.png
 
Basically, that's a "half-wave dipole", and EZNEC should show the same parameters. I won't swear by that, because I don't even know how to USE EZNEC. I'm just stating what you made according to antenna theory. Very neat idea though.
Yes, many guys on the Ham bands use loaded fiberglass whips, used to be Hamsticks, but I think they went out and someone else picked up the antennas.

73
Jeff
 
Question: Is it a half wave dipole? A half wave suggests you've got a half wave radiator. That would generate a lot of resistance and require a matching network. I think what we see here is a nice, neat center fed dipole.

Input and comments welcome
 
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The total length of a " half wave dipole" is two 1/4 wave lengths with center feed.





The half-wave dipole antenna is as you may expect, a simple half-wavelength wire fed at the center as shown in Figure 1:



electric current distribution along a half-wave dipole antenna



73
Jeff
 
I think what we see here is a nice, neat center fed dipole.
Yes it is. A Half-wavelength Center-Fed Dipole.

I'm not certain, but I don't think the direction / position of an antenna affects SWR
Position and Polarization can absolutely affect SWR and the other parameters that matter as much or more than SWR such as Reactance/Capacitance and Return Loss. Distance above earth can have a large effect on a vertically polarized dipole. Feedpoint impedance (the Magic 50 ohms and the even more magical 1:1 SWR) most definitely changes with elevation above earth, even in the clear. Ever tune an antenna on the ground with your trusty Astatic SWR meter and things change when you get it up in the air? Not always for the better? It matters.

7 3
 
Oh yes I know about this very well I ran a system like this all winter long and it was great it did very well for what it was but I'm looking for anybody with experience in the horizontal position there if anybody runs their antennas like that to act like maybe a beam or something but thank you very much for the pictures looks great
Actually I went back to read @Mr. Pipeline op, it will work in the horizontal position just fine. However it will not have the gain of a beam because there no reflector or director elements.
So to answer his original question, yes it will work, but it will not have the gain of a multi element beam.

73
Jeff
 
Question: Is it a half wave dipole? A half wave suggests you've got a half wave radiator. That would generate a lot of resistance and require a matching network. I think what we see here is a nice, neat center fed dipole.

Input and comments welcome
Answer: Yes. And you DO have a 1/2w radiator, as the entire length is radiating equally. That is to say, it's "balanced", if center-fed.

And you are correct about the need for at least, a transformer because the "theoretical nominal impedance" of a half wave dipole at resonance in free space is 73 ohms, not 50 ohms. I don't recall off-head by how much this impedance changes if you move the feedpoint off-center --- just that it does, and would still need a tuning network. Of course, a single-band dipole can sometimes use a fixed-value pi net, or a50/75 OHM transformer instead on an inline tuner, depending on how wide the desired bandwidth is.... IOW: Fine for just 11M, but not 10M~12M.
Most hams use a measured section of 300 OHM TV twinlead, or ladder line to feed it with, and connect their 50 ohm Coax coax too that.
This serves as the 'transformer', This design is named after the dude who made it popular, callsign "G5RV".
I once fed a wire dipole using another piece of wire as a gamma match. It worked, but the SWR went all over the place in any wind at all. I just did that to see if it would work and it kinda did.
 
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